Tenders will be invited in October for the installation of two flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) units at the 1,420-MW Yenikoy power station, according to officials of the Turkish Electricity Generation & Transmission Corporation (TEAS). The combined value is between $25 million-30 million, the officials add.

Tender specifications are being prepared for the units to curb pollutants in the smoke from the lignite (brown coal) fuelling the plant. The contract will be a further extension of a programme to expand lignite plants and add FGD units started in the early 1990s.

However, Yenikoy is one of three controversial lignite plants in the southwest facing strong environmental opposition. The other two plants are at Gokova and Yatagan.

A court ruling in the regional city of Aydin that the plants should be shut down by 2 September was recently upheld by a higher court following an appeal by the Energy & Natural Resources Ministry However, the government is determined to go ahead with their operation to meet electricity shortfalls in the second half of the 1990s.